Since leaving Far North Queensland for Sydney, then eventually Paris, Nathan Roche has been leading an extremely busy artistic career across several different media. While living in Australia, the Townsville-born poet and musician played with the likes of Marf Loth, Camperdown & Out, Home Run and The Revisionists, and has already racked up an astounding twelve albums.Before heading overseas, Roche also started his own record label, Glenlivet-a-Gogh, through which the artist released a trilogy of solo albums, Cathedral Made Outta Green Cards, Watch It Wharf and Magnetic Memories, as well as several books, and this hilariously surreal promo.Roche’s albums, like his musical career, are wildly diverse and often imbued with an exciting sense of spontaneity. His music draws influences from a wide array of other artists, particularly Lou Reed in his latest work.Now, Roche is living in Villejuif, a southern suburb of Paris, and heading up a band of local musicians called The Villejuif Underground. The group have recently come back from an 11 show tour in China, and have just released their debut self-titled album through SDZ records and Rice Is Nice.Stream the album below and read an interview with Nathan.Noisey: How was the album recorded?
Nathan Roche: We recorded it in our basement on a Tascam 388. A very heavy piece of machinery that looks like it was the motherboard in an early episode of Red Dwarf. The others hadn’t recorded before, so it was an entirely new, painful experience. For me, I gave up caring what things sounded like years ago so give all the credit to them.Why?
Because after six days of recording I commence a downward spiral into insanity. It’s just what you put yourself through to get it and spending too long drives me bonkers. I left the other guys to do whatever they want over the top and went outside and froze to death on the balcony.What’s it like playing with French musicians compared to Australians?
The guys I play with aren’t your usual human beings. They are completely absurd and from another dimension. I suppose they drink the same excessive amount as Australian musicians, but they talk a lot more than Australians and in a very cryptic and surreal way.How was your recent tour to China?
Outrageous. We played 11 shows all over the country and our tour manager didn’t speak English. We played in Beijing and Shanghai to thousands of people alongside Top 40 Chinese bands. Then we’d play a live house with more stage assistants fiddling with the amps than audience members.How does Paris compare to Melbourne and Sydney in sprawl/size? How is it getting about? Do you rely on train/subway?
It feels quite small after being here for two years now. I jump all the trains, never pay! But usually I’ll take the glorious public bike service, it’s only 30 euro a year! Bargain! Good luck riding up to Montmartre though, they weigh a fucking ton.You were in Paris during the theatre siege last year. Where were you when you?
It was a terrible night. I was at La Gaîté lyrique watching my friends BCBG play. I went to leave to see my girlfriend in St-Ambroise (which is on Boulevard Voltaire where Le Bataclan is) when security suddenly called for everyone outside to go back downstairs into La Gaîté lyrique. We stayed in the basement with everyone crying, screaming and on their phones for about eight hours. It was horrible to imagine what was going on in another venue just ten-minutes away. We were let out into groups around four in the morning and there was no metro, buses, or cars on the road. It felt like the end of the world.I wandered around lost with a friend—where I was living was very far away to walk, and some of the alleged gunmen were still on the loose. It didn’t help that my friend was dragging a long, plastic keyboard case on wheels that could have fit a bazooka in it. By chance we saw a friend in the street, and we walked back to an apartment nearby and just sat there drinking tea in silence. When we walked past the Canal St Martin we could see body bags laying out the front of the restaurant and bar.Besides LVU, you are trying to set up bands in each side of Paris? How is that coming along?
Yep, it’s good to keep busy and have different reasons to travel to different pockets on the velib. Laverie Nuns in a new band with Jérôme Ganivet who I did the first two Villejuif EPs with and he lives in the south west of Paris in St Cloud. We just finished the 12-track cassette that Chemical Imbalance is going to put out in Australia. We spent three days recording it. It was the first time I’d ever done it completely improvised on the spot, guitar chords and lyrics and then the bass and so on. It’s a messy, wild ride called “World On A Wire” and I don’t hate it! We are going to do the next album soon, Charlotte Kouklia will play and sing on it too, she used to play in Le Villejuif Underground before the boys gave her the boot.A Laverie in French is a Laundromat right? Is the band name in reference to nuns washing their habits in a public laundry?
Yeah! That’s right. The next album is going to be called, Wash Away Your Sins and will be a noise rock exorcism.
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Nathan Roche: We recorded it in our basement on a Tascam 388. A very heavy piece of machinery that looks like it was the motherboard in an early episode of Red Dwarf. The others hadn’t recorded before, so it was an entirely new, painful experience. For me, I gave up caring what things sounded like years ago so give all the credit to them.Why?
Because after six days of recording I commence a downward spiral into insanity. It’s just what you put yourself through to get it and spending too long drives me bonkers. I left the other guys to do whatever they want over the top and went outside and froze to death on the balcony.What’s it like playing with French musicians compared to Australians?
The guys I play with aren’t your usual human beings. They are completely absurd and from another dimension. I suppose they drink the same excessive amount as Australian musicians, but they talk a lot more than Australians and in a very cryptic and surreal way.
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Outrageous. We played 11 shows all over the country and our tour manager didn’t speak English. We played in Beijing and Shanghai to thousands of people alongside Top 40 Chinese bands. Then we’d play a live house with more stage assistants fiddling with the amps than audience members.How does Paris compare to Melbourne and Sydney in sprawl/size? How is it getting about? Do you rely on train/subway?
It feels quite small after being here for two years now. I jump all the trains, never pay! But usually I’ll take the glorious public bike service, it’s only 30 euro a year! Bargain! Good luck riding up to Montmartre though, they weigh a fucking ton.You were in Paris during the theatre siege last year. Where were you when you?
It was a terrible night. I was at La Gaîté lyrique watching my friends BCBG play. I went to leave to see my girlfriend in St-Ambroise (which is on Boulevard Voltaire where Le Bataclan is) when security suddenly called for everyone outside to go back downstairs into La Gaîté lyrique. We stayed in the basement with everyone crying, screaming and on their phones for about eight hours. It was horrible to imagine what was going on in another venue just ten-minutes away. We were let out into groups around four in the morning and there was no metro, buses, or cars on the road. It felt like the end of the world.I wandered around lost with a friend—where I was living was very far away to walk, and some of the alleged gunmen were still on the loose. It didn’t help that my friend was dragging a long, plastic keyboard case on wheels that could have fit a bazooka in it. By chance we saw a friend in the street, and we walked back to an apartment nearby and just sat there drinking tea in silence. When we walked past the Canal St Martin we could see body bags laying out the front of the restaurant and bar.Besides LVU, you are trying to set up bands in each side of Paris? How is that coming along?
Yep, it’s good to keep busy and have different reasons to travel to different pockets on the velib. Laverie Nuns in a new band with Jérôme Ganivet who I did the first two Villejuif EPs with and he lives in the south west of Paris in St Cloud. We just finished the 12-track cassette that Chemical Imbalance is going to put out in Australia. We spent three days recording it. It was the first time I’d ever done it completely improvised on the spot, guitar chords and lyrics and then the bass and so on. It’s a messy, wild ride called “World On A Wire” and I don’t hate it! We are going to do the next album soon, Charlotte Kouklia will play and sing on it too, she used to play in Le Villejuif Underground before the boys gave her the boot.A Laverie in French is a Laundromat right? Is the band name in reference to nuns washing their habits in a public laundry?
Yeah! That’s right. The next album is going to be called, Wash Away Your Sins and will be a noise rock exorcism.
Le Villejuif Underground's album is out now SDZ records (vinyl and digital) and Rice Is Nice (digital)